Dungeon Crawl Solo Rules using some Heroscape

[InfinityMax]

Hmm, you make an excellent point. It will be a pain in the arse to make all these guys on cards, and then have to cut them all out just to play the game.

So I have another idea instead - tables replace cards (for now). Everything is on a table, and there are no cards, just a die roll (probably a % roll). That will at least facilitate playtesting, and once I like it, I can adapt the tables to cards.

The only time cards would really be a huge consideration is if you're removing results as you draw them. The only time in this game that occurs (so far) is with treasure. Rooms and monsters get shuffled back in after every draw, so you could conceivably get the same card several times in a row, though it would be a different room every time (since those are printed ahead of time and drawn from a stack).

I would need to figure out something for the treasure tables. I wanted the diminishing returns on treasure to be something of a limiter on financial gain, especially because character advancement is purchased. Cheap treasure, like a handful of coins or a cheap little gem, could be shuffled back in; artifacts or magic swords need to disappear after you get them. Any suggestions?

The only downside to tables is that they are not as sexy as cards. Cards are way more fun. So maybe once I refine everything, I'll make cards. For now I think tables will be fine, and allow me to proceed to playing the game a lot sooner.

[SlikkRikk]

Have you seen Advanced Heroquest? It might solve some of your problems.

I'm a Heroquest junkie too.

[InfinityMax]

I haven't seen Advanced Heroquest since the 80s, and don't remember much of it. I know I can't afford to buy a copy of it. A lot of the problem I'm trying to overcome is that I want an affordable game, since I'm socking away all my money right now to spend on booze and hookers. Or GenCon. One of those.

[Rhydderch]

Those are some nice tiles GB. I like them better than many of the ones you can find at Agin's which sometimes looked too computerized and other times looked too realistic. I like the balance between realism and cartoon-ism which the original Heroquest captured nicely, imo.

As for tables, I think both WHQ and Advanced HeroQuest. Tables are easier to do but as you said, not nearly as cool. Also the cards provide more versatility since you can mix decks of monsters and also because it makes a more realistic dungeon crawl. For instance, when you reach a fork in the road, you can split the deck so that you now have one deck per road. That means your objective is in one deck only and therefore on one road only. Its a bit more realistic.

With a table, it doesn't really matter which road you take because you will eventually roll the dice number you need to hit that objective room.

If you make the game with cards it will have less accessibility to the general populace, so tables are definitely better if you want something to share with everyone. Cards are better if you just want to design something for yourself. Some other people with the resources will probably make their own cards but many will probably leave it alone. It might be possible to make many cards and sell them alongside your dice towers though, or maybe as a contest for people who design the best contest or whatever.

One final thought I had was that it would be possible to design a deck and make a simple program that allowed you to draw cards randomly. That way people could use the computer as the GM essentially =) It would need a feature that allowed you to choose which decks/cards to include and also a way to insert new cards into the program for specific quests but it would provide a way for people without the resources to still use the cards =) It also eliminates the problem of shuffling or sorting through the 300 cards you might end up with =P

[Malechi]

Tables are an interesting way to go (As G-Bob can attest to I was always pushing Tables in Realm of Champions his RPG). The printing cost of the cards made Realm of Champions much to prohibitive to continue. I still curse G-Bob's name for having me create some 100 cards (with many more in design and creation stages) and 5 tables which were never used! In Quests of HeroScape Teamski and I had plenty of ideas for cards but kept it to 48 (6 pages) Quests. Even with the expansions, although Netherspirit has plenty of Quest ideas, we keep it to 16 (2 pages) Quests.

BTW - Go for the booze and hookers, at least I would as I am no where near GenCon

[LilNewbie]

LOL! GenCon is when the Hookers go on vacation in Indy.

Newb.

[InfinityMax]

I've already paid and arranged a room, so I'm saving now just for gas money (we're driving) and the car rental, plus food and, you know, maybe a couple games.

A little software thing might work, but I don't want to have to play at my computer. The table is feasible, but as you mentioned, a little less versatile. You can't really just take stuff out of the table, or add it if you want skeletons in your orc dungeon.

Plus I hate tables.

But I still think I'll make tables to start.

[Grungebob]

Originally Posted by InfinityMax

I've already paid and arranged a room, so I'm saving now just for gas money (we're driving) and the car rental, plus food and, you know, maybe a couple games.

A little software thing might work, but I don't want to have to play at my computer. The table is feasible, but as you mentioned, a little less versatile. You can't really just take stuff out of the table, or add it if you want skeletons in your orc dungeon.

Plus I hate tables.

But I still think I'll make tables to start.

I really am not a fan of tables and charts. I like the speed and versatility of cards. I like how you can easily assign a piece of equipment to a character by simply placing a card under or on top of their card. The trick is to do whatever you can to try and keep the amount of cards down to a bare minmum. In ROC we devised a way to make the monsters unique by creating "augments" These were simply cards that randomly popped up and added to the stats of the monsters. So if you had a Orc card and a Heavy Armor augment, you created Armored Orcs. The neat thing was that these created alot of variety with minimal cards as the augments worked on all cards and we did not have to make any special monster cards. We would just make an Orc card and allow the versatility to be accomplished through the use of these augmnets.

[InfinityMax]

It's been a week since I posted on this topic, but I've been working on it, and wanted to drop some progress reports.

First - to make the first 'set' manageable, I'm only doing goblinoids. No giant spiders or rats or skeletons or whatever. Here's the list:

Lowest Threat Monsters
Goblin Bolt: A2, D1, Mv6, L1, Mnd3, Bty1 (crossbow)
Goblin Blade: A2, D1, Mv6, L1, Mnd3, Bty1
Orc Slasher: A2, D2, Mv5, L2, Mnd3, Bty1
Orc Shooter: A2, D2, Mv5, L2, Mnd3, Bty1 (bow)

Middle Threat
Orc Enforcer: A4, D3, Mv6, L3, Mnd4, Bty2
Orc Bodyguard: A3, D4, Mv6, L3, Mnd4, Bty2
Orc Medicine Man: A2, D3, Mv7, L3, Mnd4. Bty2 (*spells)
Goblin Taskmaster: A3, D3, Mv8, L2, Mnd3. Bty2 (**whip)

High Threat
Ogre: A5, D4, Mv6, L5, Mnd3, Bty3 (**reach)
Orc Chieftain: A4, D5, M7, L4, Mnd4, Bty3 (**large axe)
Orc Shaman: A3, D3, Mv6, L4, Mnd5, Bty3 (***spells)

A: Attack, D: Defense, Mv: Move, L: Life, Mnd: Mind, Bty: Bounty
*Orc Medicine Man has the following spells, which he may cast once per game:
--Dread Cloud of Defeat: -1A, -1D on one target; will cast on biggest melee fighter
--Sickly Touch: If adjacent to a hero, this spell automatically causes -1L
**These monsters may attack diagonally
***Orc Shaman has the following spells, each of which he may use once per game:
--Dread Cloud of Defeat
--Sickly Touch
--Kargoch's Helping Hand: +2 Life to adjacent monster
--Slavering Fearlessness: +1A, +1D for all allies until end of fight
--Miasma: Attack with Mind-1 instead of attack; target a space and all spaces adjacent (but not diagonal)

Those are the monsters I will be using for the first 'set' I make.

[InfinityMax]

Augments sound like they may work. If this thing I'm doing doesn't work out, I may try that instead.

[Grungebob]

Lookin good!!

[InfinityMax]

I could use a little idea help for monster icons. I've got treasure icons - those were pretty easy. See, monsters and treasures come in four varieties - low, medium, high and objective. So my low treasure icon is copper coins, medium is gold coins, high is a gem, and objective is a golden chalice. So now I need monster icons - only I need four icons, all in the same vein, so that you can see quickly whether the foe to place is a low, medium, high or objective monster.

I considered monster heads, but the problem is that I'm trying to keep the icons a little generic. If I use a goblin head for low, that sort of rules out putting a giant rat there. I considered skulls, too, but I'm not sure how to scale that up.

Anyone with ideas?